Hyderabad, March 06: Amidst ‘Jai Samaikyandhra’ slogans and display of placards near the Speaker’s podium by the Seemandhra TDP members, finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy yesterday completed the mandatory budget reply though no discussions took place on the sixth and the last day of general discussion on the annual budget for 2011-12.
Except for LSP leader Jayaprakash Narayan, no other party member took part in the discussion due to frequent adjournments by the Chair, continuous obstruction of the proceedings by the CPI and Seemandhra TDP members and boycott of budget session by the TRS, Telangana Congress and TDP legislators.
The finance minister, in his 12-minute reply, lashed out at the main opposition TDP and its leader N Chandrababu Naidu (not present in the House) for the latter’s failure to participate in the discussion on the state’s budget of Rs1.28 lakh cr.
The opposition leader was running away from his ‘responsibilities’ by not responding to the government’s budget presented on February 23, he said.
“People are looking at the opposition to have a debate on public issues in the Assembly.
It is not proper for the TDP to run away from its responsibility without making any concrete suggestions to the government for betterment of the state,” he said.
Chandrababu Naidu had ‘closed both his eyes’ and left the state’s interest to the wind. The government had placed the budget proposals before the House for approval, he said.
“Despite economic slowdown, steps have been taken to achieve the targets to turn the state into Harithandhra Pradesh,” he said.
Earlier, Jayaprakash Narayan compared the budget with that of a ‘medipandu’ (fig). There was no longterm vision for the agriculture sector and the government failed to take steps for export of ‘surplus’ BPT and boiled rice, he said.
Besides, no steps were taken to stabilise the prices of essential commodities. There was a wide gap in the per capita income of farmers and agriculture labour (of about Rs15000) as compared to other sections of society (about Rs1.5 lakh). Above all, the state’s debts were increasing (about Rs.1.6 lakh cr by 2012-13) and the assets were coming down year after year, the LSP chief lamented.
–Agencies